Kylie Prokop,39, of Cheltenham, grew up in Darwin and has done a lot of damage to her skin. Picture: Dean Martin Source: adelaidenow

GROWING up in Darwin with fair skin and freckles has left Cheltenham's Kylie Prokop with lasting sun damage. Yesterday, Ms Prokop had her skin analysed on the Sunsense UV Photobus for UV damage.

Yesterday, Ms Prokop had her skin analysed on the Sunsense UV Photobus for UV damage.

She scored two on a scale of 0-100, with the lower the score the worse the result.

"Oh my gosh, it's just so shocking," she said.

"I wasn't expecting the results to be great but I'm concerned."

Ms Prokop, 39, was told the average percentage for her gender and age was 49.

The Photobus was in Adelaide as part of a tour to stress the importance of covering up to reduce sun damage. It uses UV cameras to penetrate the skin to show sun damage under the skin's surface including sun spots, pigmentation, freckles and moles.

The participants gender, age and skin type is then collated to determine the UV percentile score.

SunSense tour manager Andrew Flanagan said the results were a wake-up call to most people.

"To be able to see your damage is one of those experiences which can change your life," he said.

Each year about 384,000 skin cancers are diagnosed in Australia, about 1000 per day.

Mr Flanagan said it was important to cover-up, particularly on overcast days because 80 per cent of the rays still penetrate cloud cover.

Today the Cancer Council is launching a new national skin cancer awareness campaign aimed at encouraging men aged over 45 to have regular skin cancer checks, particularly on their backs where one in three cases of melanoma occur.

Each year in SA 77 men die from melanoma - more than double the number of women.

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